Keeping an eye on the 9th Circuit

Main menu

Home

Welcome to The 9th Circuit Watch.com where we keep an eye on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The emphasis of this site is case law written by the 9th Circuit on immigration; criminal law and procedure; the death penalty; habeas corpus; prisoner’s rights; First Amendment issues; Fourth Amendment law on search and seizure; Fifth Amendment & Miranda decisions; and public official’s immunity. The Blog discusses cases in more detail; Recent Cases consists of brief summaries by topic.

During the 2006-2007 term of the Supreme Court, the Justices reversed the 9th Circuit in twenty one out of twenty two cases. In the 2007-2008 term the Supreme Court reversed the 9th Circuit in eight out of ten cases. In the term beginning in October, 2008-09 the Supreme Court granted cert in a series of 9th Circuit cases, several reversed. The Supreme Court began its 2009-2010 term with a stinging per curium reversal of a 9th Circuit death penalty case. The Supreme Court subsequently reversed the 9th Circuit in twenty one cases. The Supreme Court ended its 2010-2011 term reversing twenty 9th Circuit cases. Numerous cases on the 2011-2012, 2012-2013, 2013-2014 were reversed and all are included in the Blog. No other Circuit Court has experienced this reversal record. In some cases, the Supreme Court dispensed with briefing and reversed the 9th Circuit in per curium opinions. In other cases the Justices were severely critical, reproaching the 9th Circuit for disregarding precedent.

Because the 9th Circuit has frequently chastised immigration judges, we began a series of court decisions on that subject equally subject to criticism under the title of “Recent Decisions” on the Home Page . The volume of immigration decisions is enormous and the 9th Circuit develops its own precedent of cases infrequently reviewed by the Supreme Court. Readers will note the antipathy of the 9th Circuit toward immigration judges only encourages lawyers to appeal removal orders and delay deportation. Due to the volume of cases, and that most are fact intensive, we have discontinued reporting those decisions.

The 2014-2015 calendar began in October 2014 and the Supreme Court had already reversed one 9th Circuit case; Scialabba v. Cuellar, 134 S.C t.2191 (2014). On the opening day the Court reversed another case. There are 2 ways to research 9th Circuit and Supreme Court decisions. The title of the case and a brief summary are listed under “Recent Cases.” Cases decided after January 1, 2015 are listed here. Cases decided prior to that date are listed chronologically thereafter For a more comprehensive review of recent cases-other than immigration- log on to the Blog.